Prepping for back to school with magnesium

You’ve seen it slowly start to trickle into the stores for the past few weeks…
The backpacks, the folders, the un-sharpened, number two pencils. You can practically smell the untouched, brightly colored wax crayons wrapped in paper just BEGGING to be used on some construction paper. You can see the waves of homework coming in and proud evidence of finished projects that will soon adorn your refrigerator. Back to School season is upon us!
Some of you may have prepared for this day a long time ago, and some of you may feel the calm before the great storm of panic, stress, and your child’s most wanted/needed items selling out right before your eyes! Maybe there’s a great sense of relief, thinking, FINALLY! A house that will stay clean longer than an hour! Some of you may be in denial that the summer has already flown by, you’re not ready for your littles to head back to school all day. One thing that all mamas have in common is the love that they have for their babies! You want them to feel prepared, ready for a brand new year. Ready to make new friends, handle new schedules and regimens, and expand their genius little minds.
The clothes, the new shoes, all the supplies, the lunchboxes, backpacks, and even more supplies that you’ll inevitably pick up after the syllabus comes home is a great deal to tackle and help them feel at ease the night before school starts.. But what if I told you there was something else to help them prepare and perform at their best that you could be doing long before the school bells ring?

Did you know that magnesium is a VITAL nutrient to our bodies but deficient in our modern day diets? It’s true! Have you ever heard someone utter a phrase like, ‘that just didn’t happen back then’, or ‘back in the olden days, we didn’t have problems like that’. Well unfortunately, that’s also pretty true. Long ago, our ancestors didn’t have to worry about magnesium deficiency. They maintained good levels of magnesium just by what they ate! Meats, mineral water, seafood, fruits and vegetables all proved to be great sources of magnesium. Even taking a dip in the ocean once upon a time boosted your RDA (recommended daily allowance).

In this day and age the magnesium rich soil and waters are just not there anymore. Which in turn, means that the magnesium levels aren’t even traceable in the fruits and vegetables that are grown. If they are, they’re usually extracted by various forms of treatment.

Right now I want to talk to you about how your child could be affected by magnesium deficiency. Signs are very similar if not the same in adults with low levels of magnesium but some may be trickier to spot in young ones depending on their age, ability to communicate, or what stage of development they may be in.

Here are some things to look for:

Difficulty sleeping
Constipation
Muscle spasms and/or twitches
Irritability (this one can be the hardest to decipher if dealing with a teen, haha).

Magnesium not only helps your child with the ailments above but it can also help prevent and aide in coping with disorders such as ADD, ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Long-term deficiency in magnesium is linked to high blood pressure, Parkinson’s Disease, Restless Leg Syndrome, kidney stones, and diabetes.

Magnesium so SO important, that magnesium deficiency is responsible for more disease than lack of any other nutrient. It’s the most critical mineral required for electric stability in every single cell in our bodies. Wow!! Because magnesium affects our cells, including the cells in our brain, which are very, VERY MANY, and that’s where the MOST electrical activity takes place, it makes perfect sense that a brain that has healthy levels of magnesium can perform much better than one with low levels.
Here’s just a handful of ways that magnesium affects the brain:
Strengthens the pre-frontal cortex, aka short term memory
Boost’s the brain’s recall function, ensuring it the ability to pull up memories/knowledge
Strengthens the hippocampus! The hippowhatis?? That’s the part of our brain where long term memory and where objects and locations are stored. (Fun fact: Every time you’re on your way home and you don’t even have to think where you’re going.. You can thank your hippocampus for that).
Strengthens the synoptic nerves. The stronger your synapse is, the less impulsive you are. Less impulsivity leads to better made choices. It also aids in jogging memories fast and correctly.
Nourishes your entire nervous system

Let me kick you a hypothetical scenario.
Max starts school, his diet is fair. Buckling down, back into stricter schedules proves to be a bit of a challenge for him. He is very bright but sometimes has trouble concentrating. Max feels overwhelmed. Fellow students and possibly even teachers tease him for mentally wandering off all the time. Max again feels another wave of frustration, driving his cortisol up and losing any remnants of magnesium he had to begin with. He starts down the path of self doubt and negative self talk. Thoughts like ‘I’m stupid’, ‘I’m a bad student’, ‘I’m going nowhere’ begin an even further downward spiral and the snowball effect begins and now he’s an adult with scarily low self esteem and a detrimental mental block that he can’t do anything worthwhile. Like Kristen Bowen says, ‘If you play a pattern anywhere, you play a pattern everywhere’. Many of the patterns we play and may be unaware of we actually pick up in our childhood and early adult years.

This scenario is obviously is fake and very dramatized. Also, this article in NO WAY is saying that magnesium is the sole determining factor in your child succeeding in school. This could be a typical day for any student no matter what level of learning they are at and even if your child is soaking in magnesium, these days can happen. This article is meant to inform and perhaps inspire parents who might see signs of deficiency to get their children soaking NOW. Plus, there’s a bonus! People who soak during the summer months where there is plenty of vitamin D to be stored actually retain healthy levels into the winter months when they’re extra crucial to the body.

Why not try it? See if you notice positive changes in your child! If they are babies, the magnesium lotion is such a calming and mild form. It helps baby’s digestion, sleep cycles, and is great to aid with acid reflux. If they are 2 years or older, pour ⅛ c. of the soak into the bathtub while they’re playing. You can even try to have them soak their feet while watching their favorite T.V. show for 30-40 minutes in a glass or stainless steel bowl. Once they are over 4 feet they are able to soak in ¼ c. Deeper sleep, heightened memory recall, corrective thinking, memory/knowledge retention, the list could really go on and on!! Also, if you are interested in trying any of our magnesium products they’re all going on sale in August! We will be featuring a different magnesium product every week during August and since there’s a fifth week we will be featuring our best selling Magnesium Soak twice this month! Back to school means back to magnesium! Let’s get soaking!

Bonus!! Our magnesium products are on SALE the ENTIRE month of August!! Right now, our Magnesium soak is on the all-time lowest sale price!!

Here at LTGLN, we import magnesium from the Zechstein Sea, near The Netherlands. It’s never diluted and it goes through a very clean salt mining process to get the best source, free of impurities. It’s used in all of our magnesium products! You can read more about the mining process as well as more benefits of soaking in magnesium in our other post found here.